Chapter 4: Sanctuary
"Chapter 4: Sanctuary" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American webseries The Mandalorian, based on characters by George Lucas. It premiered on Disney+ on November 29, 2019. The series follows the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), a lone bounty hunter collecting bounties from the highest bidders. The episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and written by series creator Jon Favreau, with Gina Carano co-starring as Cara Dune. Plot On Sorgan, a sparsely populated forest planet, a village of krill farmers is pillaged by Klatooinian raiders. The Mandalorian soon lands on Sorgan looking to hide from the Guild with the Child. In a local restaurant, they come across a suspicious mercenary (Gina Carano). The Mandalorian and the mercenary briefly fight, but come to a draw. The mercenary identifies herself as Cara Dune, a former Rebel shocktrooper who had left her position and is hiding on the planet, which she asks the Mandalorian to leave. Back at the Razor Crest, the Mandalorian is approached by two of the villagers hoping to hire him to drive off the raiders. He accepts in return for lodging in the isolated village and uses their payment to hire Dune for extra help. Once at the village, a widowed mother named Omera (Julia Jones) takes them in and offers them food. She asks about the Mandalorian's helmet and he explains that he has not removed it in front of someone since he was a boy. He reveals that he is an adopted Mandalorian; the Tribe took him in after the death of his parents. Dune and the Mandalorian find a set of tracks in the mud outside the village and identify that the raiders have an Imperial AT-ST, a small armored walker with heavy guns. Dune insists the villagers leave and make their home elsewhere, but they refuse and decide to fight. The Mandalorian and Dune show the farmers how to defend themselves and then set up traps in the krill ponds for the AT-ST. After nightfall, the Mandalorian and Dune infiltrate the raiders' camp to provoke the raiders into attacking the village. The AT-ST then chases them back to the village, but stops short of the krill ponds. The Klatooinian raiders then attack the villagers while the AT-ST shoots the village with artillery fire. Dune then gets beneath the AT-ST, shooting into one of the viewports with the Mandalorian's pulse rifle. The AT-ST takes the bait and steps into the pond, sinks, and then falls over. The Mandalorian then throws a thermal detonator into the walker, blowing it up, and the raiders flee back into the forest. With peace having returned to the village, the Child plays happily with the other children. The Mandalorian tells Dune and Omera that he plans to leave the Child there as he feels it would be a better life. However, a Kubazi bounty hunter from the Guild takes aim at the Child from the trees. Before he can fire, Dune shoots him from behind. The Mandalorian realizes the Child has to stay under his protection. He bids farewell to Omera and Dune, and leaves the village with the Child. Production Development The episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, who is the second woman to direct a live-action Star Wars project. According to Howard, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni allowed individual episode directors the freedom to "put our stamp on everything". She said this surprised her father, Ron Howard, who directed Lucasfilm Solo: A Star Wars Story. The episode was written by showrunner Favreau. Casting In November 2018, Gina Carano was cast as Cara Dune. In September 2018, Julia Jones joined the cast in an undisclosed role, later revealed to be Omera. Music Ludwig Göransson composed the soundtrack for the episode. Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode holds an approval rating of 91% with an average rating of 7.45/10, based on 22 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Under director Bryce Dallas Howard's deft guidance, "Sanctuary" scales down on big action-set pieces to find intimate character moments, exposing a deeper sense of humanity underneath The Mandalorian metal suit." /Film compared the episode's plot to that of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). References External links * * * * Category:2019 American television episodes Category:The Mandalorian episodes